2,000 Doctors Named For Taking Pharma Bribes
April, 23, 2010
Nearly 2,000 doctors named for taking pharma firms' gifts
NEW DELHI: Nearly 2,000 doctors have violated professional ethics by receiving gifts, hospitality, or monetary grants from pharmaceutical companies in the last three years, according to the Medical Council of India (MCI), parliament was informed Friday.
"The Medical Council of India has informed that out of a total of 1,992 complaints received against doctors during the last three years and the current year, 31 doctors have either been warned or their names temporarily removed from the Indian Medical Register," Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Azad said his ministry in consultation with the MCI has amended the Indian Medical Council (Professional conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.
"The amendment prohibits the doctors from accepting gifts, travel facility, hospitality, cash or monetary grants or any other favours from any pharmaceutical and allied health sector industry for self or family members," he added.
The minister said that Rakesh Lodha of the Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Anurag Bhargav of Jan Swasthya Sahyog in Chhattisgarh have recently conducted a study, reported in a recent issue of Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, that vaccine manufacturers are offering vaccines at hugely reduced prices to doctors.
"However, many of these doctors are charging full price for these vaccines from the patients," Azad said, quoting the study.